So years ago when I was first learning Windows I started collecting sound effects like crazy. It was my first computer hobby. Fart noises and burps and Simpsons soundbytes and blips and bloops and stuff. In Control Panel I used to set my computer Sounds to make noises constantly no matter what I did. On Shutdown (Apu: Thank you come again!) or Startup (Yabba Dabba Doo!) or error messages (Fart or burp) it was like the noisiest machine and it used to crack me up. Nowadays my computer is pretty quiet. I don’t need the General Lee’s horn announcing every single time I get an email or whatever.

But back in the day, there was one fart noise that I always found fairly impressive. I used it as a sound effect for when ‘buddies’ signed off AOL instant messenger or something. It had a sort of brass horn quality– and I am completely convinced it is the most used fart noise in the world. It is perhaps the fart noise that has been heard by the most people in the history of the world. I’ve heard it in movies and TV lots of times and I recognize it instantly…

Here it is used recently in Mad Men. Fast forward to 1:18…:

Not Mad Men’s proudest moment— but every time I hear this specific fart I wonder about the guy who originally created it. I wonder what he thinks of the infinite life of his little fart…

I wonder if he hears his fart on Mad Men or in a movie and is proud— or is he mad that he created something that is used so super often but he gets no money nor any credit? It is a great fart. The right balance of tooty humor without being overly gross. He does deserve credit for his fart creation (whether it was originally butt produced or tuba produced or whatever).

I often think about things all over the place that someone somewhere created or said or made for the first time and never received credit for. People have started catchphrases. Invented dance moves. Started hairstyles etc etc. And they see their ‘creation’ go national (or global) and they can’t even brag about it because nobody would believe them. Or they’re pissed that they didn’t own it from the beginning somehow.

There’s no controlling an online fart of course– but as a fan of farts I felt acknowledging this particular fart is the least I can do…

ok bye!
tOdd

PS. There is a runner up to most famous fart. It’s a deeper and more farty fart. The sound goes down and then shoots up. I’ll look for it later…

That scream became known as the “Wilhelm Scream,” named after a character from an old western who was at the receiving end of a well aimed arrow. Sound engineers have used it as running inside joke like a piece audio graffiti in well over 200 films over the years.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, have many philosophies about the humor extrapolated from farts. A fart can only be funny if it isn’t fake-sounding. Many things can be attributed to a fart sounding fake, but the number 1 culprit is, of course, having heard the exact same fart used over and over again in other movies and tv shows.